Balmoral Park

Balmoral Pick 4 carryover creates rare advantage for players

Estimated $50,000 pool Saturday with $9,790 rollover

By Michael Antoniades, Balmoral Park racing analyst

On the heels of a wildly successful Pick 4 weekend, the Saturday Balmoral Park wager will get a large boost because no bettor was able to select all four winners on Wednesday. The Saturday pool will be seeded with a carryover of $9,790 and we estimate the final pool at $50,000.

With the low takeout of 15 percent, the Balmoral Pick 4 will offer that rare opportunity to play with an advantage. Simply speaking, the amount paid back to the winners will exceed the amount wagered on the bet if the final pool is less than $75,056. Based on the extraordinary value of the bet, the Balmoral Saturday Pick 4 is the must play bet of the weekend. The following example is based on a final pool of $50,000.

Using the $50,000 estimated pool, you would have $43,969 returned to the winners even though they wagered only $40,210. This would create a surplus of $3,759 which would be added to the winning payout. The $50,000 pool would create a players advantage of 8.9 percent. This scenario is created with low takeout and dead money in the pool.

With the help of the USTA Strategic Wagering program, Balmoral Park got off to a roaring start with the Pick 4 initiative. The one-mile oval continues to trend up as Pick 4 pools doubled last weekend and helped push handle numbers up on the other races as well. Bettors wagered $2,470,583 on our 22 races last weekend, an average of $112,299 per race.

Free program pages for the Saturday and Sunday Pick 4 action are available on the USTA handicapping page at ustrotting.com.

Free complimentary copy
The Players Guide
An inside look at Chicago harness racing
By Chicagoís racing analyst Michael Antoniades
Available on the web at www.oddsonracing.com